Joe Baker

Joe Baker, the former Arsenal, Hibernian, Notts Forest and England centre-forward, who has died aged 63, could, in fact, hardly have been more Scottish, although born in Liverpool. The son of a sailor, when his father left the navy, Joe as a baby was whisked back over the border to Wishaw, Lanarkshire, but his accident of birth was enough for England managers Walter Winterbottom and Alf Ramsey to pick him for the international team.

In all, he played for them eight times, though to his disappointment, he did not make the cut for the 1966 World Cup squad. This despite a lively performance in December 1965 against Spain in Madrid, where a 2-0 win was seen by some as the turning point in the fortunes of a side destined to go on to win the World Cup. Baker scored England's second goal, after a sweeping move, and kept his place the following month for the 1-1 draw with Poland at Goodison Park, but thereafter Ramsey decided he would look elsewhere.

Baker played schools and boys' football in Lanarkshire and won a Scottish schoolboys' cap before joining the Edinburgh club, Hibernian, where he flourished. In his first season he scored all four goals in a 4-3 win in the Scottish Cup against local rivals, Hearts, and 159 goals in four years.

He made his debut for England on November 18 1959, and scored one of their two goals in an unconvincing 2-1 win at Wembley against Northern Ireland, keeping his place for the rest of the season; against Scotland at Hampden and on tour against Yugoslavia, Spain and Hungary, though he did not score again. There followed a long hiatus, till at last he was recalled to the colours almost five years later in the match against Spain by which time he was playing for Arsenal.

Though small for a centre-forward, standing 1.74 metres (5ft 7in) and weighing 74 kilos (163lbs), he was fast, brave and tough, with good close control. He was also pretty handy, should the occasion demand it, with his fists.

Hibernian sold him to the Italian club Torino for £75,000 in 1961 after he demanded a £5 a week pay rise (he earned £12 a week). During his unhappy season there he knocked an importunate paparazzo into a Venetian canal. One also remembers his brief battle with the far taller, heavier Ron Yeats, Liverpool's centre-half, during a match between Arsenal and Liverpool at Highbury. It was, to some surprise, Yeats who was knocked down, but both players were sent off.

His move to Torino at the same time as the club signed Denis Law from Manchester City seemed to me a mistaken move. Torino had never really recovered from the appalling air crash of May 1949, which wiped out the whole of their then dominant team. Fiorentina, by contrast, were a well supported and successful club. In later years, Baker agreed with me that he would have been better off in Florence.

Baker and Law shared an apartment in Turin, but never settled down, though Law hugely impressed the Torino fans. Things came to a climax when, in the small hours of one morning in 1962, the two of them crashed their car in Turin. Not long afterwards both of them left the club, Baker joining Arsenal and Law Manchester United. Altogether, Baker made 144 First Division appearances, scoring 93 goals, having cost £70,000 from Torino. In the FA Cup he scored in four out of 10 games.

In February 1966, the Gunners transferred him to Nottingham Forest; the following two seasons there saw him score 16 league goals in each. Subsequently, he joined Sunderland, returned to Hibernian, then to Raith Rovers, managed Albion Rovers, and became a publican and club hospitality host at Hibernian.

He is survived by his wife Sonia, daugher Nadia and son Colin.

· Joseph Henry Baker, footballer, born August 17 1940; died October 6 2003